Nanotechnology is a fast growing industry with many potential implications on products ranging from lenses configured to manipulate light to pharmaceuticals and drug delivery devices. Nanostructured lenses can include lenses designed with nanometer scale structures ordered and arranged to polarize or focus light. In other applications, nanometer sized particles can be fabricated of engineered polymer compositions designed to package and deliver pharmaceutical or biologic material to desired tissues or organs within a patient.
Nanotechnology based products, however, face unique hurdles in manufacturing because the products include structures or components that have a size or shape on the nanometer scale. In other words, although nanotechnology is a rapidly growing industry with many potential applications, the ability to fabricate nanometer scale products in volume needs advancement.
Currently, products of or having nanometer size structures are fabricated in batch type processing. Many of these batch processes require high precision machinery with the capability of maintaining very level surfaces, typically relying on glass substrate components. In certain instances, these processes can fabricate effective components; however, the processes typically fail to produce the yield that is required for mass production. Therefore, a need exists to transform the fabrication of nanometer scale products and components from batch type processes to robust and dynamic roll to roll processing.